Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/641

 PLUM PLUMER 621 a southern. The plum will grow well in al- most any soil, but with some exceptions heavy loams and earths abounding in clay seem best. Muck from salt-water marshes and from docks has been found very serviceable. Common salt promotes the health and luxuriance of the tree. The plum is liable to a singular dis- ease, known as the black wart, which, seizing upon the young branches, ends by destroying them. Its origin has been attributed to in- sects, which it sometimes harbors, but it is due to a small fungus, sphceria morbosa. The only remedy is to cut and burn the affected branches. The plum weevil is the rhynchcenus nenuphar, a small dark brown beetle, about one fifth of an inch long, best known as the curculio. The female deposits her eggs in young plums, peaches, and other fruit, ma- king a crescent-shaped incision in the skin; hence the insect is often called the "little Turk." The egg produces a grub which, feed- ing on the fruit, causes it to fall ; the grub en- ters the earth, and in three weeks appears as a perfect beetle ; the insect winters in the per- fect state. So destructive is it that large trees will have every plum killed, and in many lo- calities the culture has been abandoned. The best preventive discovered is shaking the trees daily for a few weeks and catching the bee- tles in outspread sheets, when they must be killed. The fallen plums should be also care- fully gathered and destroyed. The uses of the plum are for dessert, for preserving, and for drying to make prunes. In France several distinct sorts are raised expressly to manufac- Quetsche Plum, or German Prune. ture into prunes, the most prominent among which are the quetsche (known here as Ger- man prune), St. Catharine, Brignoles, and oth- ers. The fruits are not gathered until the sun has dried off the dews ; they are then picked 670 VOL. xni. 40 by hand and spread in shallow baskets, which are kept in a cool and dry place ; when they have become soft, they are shut up close in spent ovens and left for 24 hours ; they are then taken out and replaced after the ovens have been slightly reheated. On the next day they are taken out and turned by slightly sha- king the sieves on which they have been laid. The ovens are heated again, and they are put in a third time; and after remaining 24 hours they are taken out and left to get quite cold. After some manipulation they are submitted to oven heat twice more, and then packed into boxes or jars for sale. The finer kinds of prunes only receive this treatment; for the common sorts the fruit is shaken from the trees, dried with less care, and roughly packed in casks. A kind of dried plum is prepared at Brignoles in France, and bears the name of the place; it has the skin removed before drying, and the stone afterward. From the bruised pulp of plums and the kernels ferment- with honey and flour, and the mass distilled, a spirit is obtained in the south of France. PLOIAS, a N. E. county of California, con- taining the sources of Feather river; area, 2,736 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 4,489, of whom 911 were Chinese. Lying within the Sierra Nevada range, the surface is composed of high mountains, deep caflons, and grass- covered valleys. Many of the valleys are large and fertile, but the chief resources are mineral. According to the census of 1870, 80 gold mines were in operation, of which 5 were quartz and 75 placer. The chief productions were 15,212 bushels of wheat, 63,474 of oats, 16,345 of barley, 14,848 of potatoes, 13,023 Ibs. of wool, 234,725 of butter, and 15,765 tons of hay. There were 1,440 horses, 3,465 milch cows, 8,144 other cattle, 12,042 sheep, and 1,342 swine; 3 saw mills, and 4 quartz mills. Capital, Quincy. PLUMBAGO. See GEAPHITE. PLD1ER, William, an American politician, born in Newbury, Mass., June 25, 1759, died in Epping, N. H., Dec. 22, 1850. He was ad- mitted to the bar in Epping in 1787, was suc- cessful as a lawyer, and for many years took an active part in politics. He was eight times elected a representative in the state legislature, of which he was speaker for two years, and was a member and for two years president of the state senate. In 1792 he was one of the delegates to the convention for revising the state constitution. In 1802 he was elected United States senator, and in 1812, 1816, 1817, and 1818 was chosen governor of New Hamp- shire. In 1820 he was a presidential elector. He contributed to the periodical press, and left many manuscripts. His life has been written by his son, William Plumer, jr., and edited by the Rev. A. P. Peabody (8vo, Boston, 1856). PLUMER, William Swan, an American clergy- man, born in Griersburg (now Darlington), Beaver co., Pa., July 25, 1802. He graduated at Washington college, Virginia, in 1825, studied